different between beset vs bestead

English

Etymology

From Middle English besetten, bisetten, from Old English besettan (“to beset; set beside; set near; appoint; place; own; possess”), from Proto-Germanic *bisatjan? (“to set near; set around”), equivalent to be- +? set. Cognate with Saterland Frisian besätte (“to occupy”), West Frisian besette (“to occupy”), Dutch bezetten (“to sit in; occupy; fill”), German Low German besetten (“to occupy”), German besetzen (“to seize; occupy; garrison”), Danish besætte (“to occupy; obsess”), Swedish besätta (“to fill; occupy; beset”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??s?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

beset (third-person singular simple present besets, present participle besetting, simple past and past participle beset)

1. (transitive) To surround or hem in.
2. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To attack or assail, especially from all sides.

   • “Nay, for matter o’ that, he never doth any mischief,” said the woman; “but to be sure it is necessary he should keep some arms for his own safety; for his house hath been beset more than once; and it is not many nights ago that we thought we heard thieves about it […]

3. (transitive) To decorate something with jewels etc.
4. (nautical) Of a ship, to get trapped by ice.

Derived terms

• besetting

Translations

Anagrams

• Beets, Beste, beest, beets, tsebe

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch bezetten, from Middle Dutch besetten, from Old Dutch *bisetten, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??s?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Verb

beset (present beset, present participle besettende, past participle beset)

1. (transitive) to occupy, to fill
2. (transitive, military) to occupy militarily

Derived terms

• besetting

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?d

Etymology 1

From be- +? stead (“to support, help”).

Alternative forms

• bested

Verb

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past besteaded, past participle bestead)

1. (transitive) To help, assist.
   • And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
2. (transitive) To profit; benefit; serve; avail.
   • 1859, Southern literary messenger: Volume 28:

     With forty sous which remained, he went to a low gambling house, where fortune, or something surer to the skilful practitioner, so well besteaded him that he was able to clothe himself decently preparatory to entering Frascati's, the fashionable hell of Paris—a den of abomination early suppressed on the accession of Louis Philippe to the French throne.

Synonyms

• (help; assist): aid, lend a hand; See also Thesaurus:help
• (profit; benefit; serve; avail): bestand; See also Thesaurus:serve

Derived terms

• besteading

Etymology 2

From be- +? stead (“place”).

Verb

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past and past participle besteaded)

1. (transitive) To take the place of; replace.

Etymology 3

From be- + Old Norse staddr (“placed”), later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

Alternative forms

• bested

Adjective

bestead (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Placed (in a given situation); beset.
2. (obsolete) Disposed mentally; affected.

   sorrowfully bested

3. (obsolete) Provided; furnished.

Anagrams

• beasted, bed teas, bed-teas, debates